Introduction

Normally the Italian representative has been the winner or a participant of the popular San Remo Festival, which takes place in the beautiful Mediterranean city. This year the Italian broadcaster RAI has not been waiting for the outcome of the San Remo Festival, the announcement has been an early surprise. Emma Marrone, a 29 years old singer, who was born in Florence, Tuscany has been chosen internally to represent Italy in Copenhagen this year.

Emma Marrone has been participating in Italy’s favourite casting show “Amici di Maria De Filippi” and even won it! After that her career took off, her debut album “Oltre” with only seven songs has received double platinum status in Italy and her first single “Calore” went number straight away.

Emma, whose original name is Emmanuela has become very popular in Italy and Switzerland. She had four #1 songs by now, she made a 2nd place in the San Remo Festival together with the duo Modá and the song “Arrivierá” and one year later she could even win the San Remo Festival with “Non è l’inferno”, with this song she reached another #1 position in the Italian charts.

Since Emma’s early childhood she wanted to make music and being successful, she said. She had no real idols, she was listening to all kinds of music, mainly Mina and Take That.

Her music is Italian rock, maybe a bit comparable with Gianna Nanini’s music style. Despite Emma’s lovely look her heart beats for the harder beats, which is obvious in all of her recent songs. The song “Ma mia cittá” is a modern Italian rock tune with a fast rhythm and a striking chorus. It all depends on her performance and show live on stage and how will she present that song. Due to the fact that Italy is already qualified for the grand final, this entry will certainly stand out and will put Italy among the favourites for another time. Good choice Italy!

History

Participations: 41

Debut: 1956

Biggest success: 2x 1st place “Non Ho L'étà” by Gigliola Cinquetti in 1964, “Insieme: 1992” by Toto Cutugno in 1990, 4x 2nd place “Amani Se Vuoi” by Tonina Torielli in 1956, “Asprite Le Finestre” by Franca Raimondi in 1956, “Si” by Gigliola Cinquetti in 1974, “Folia D’Amore” by Raphael Gualazzi in 2011, 4x 3rd place “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu” (Volare) by Domenico Modugno in 1958, “Uno Per Tutte” by Emilio Pericoli in 1963, “Era” by Wess and Dori Ghezzi in 1975, “Gente Di Mare” by Umberto Tozzi & Raf in 1987, 2x 4th place, 4x 5th place, 4x 6th place, 4x 7th place, 2x 8th place, 3x 9th place, 1x 10th place

For Italy it’s the 41st time participating in the Eurovision Song Contest! The original idea of the ESC resulted from the Italian music festival called “San Remo Festival” which started in 1951 for the first time and it’s still exciting and very popular. The concept came up to do a similar contest on an international level, which has become reality in 1956. Normally one of the winners of the San Remo festival has been chosen to be the Italian representative for the ESC. In the ESC Italy has won twice “Non Ho L'étà” by Gigliola Cinquetti in 1964 and “Insieme: 1992” by Toto Cutugno in 1990.

Over the years many of the Italian contributions became hits and even evergreens all over Europe and are strongly connected with typical Italian music like “Per Lucia” by Riccardo Fogli in 1983 (11th), “Gente di Mare” by Umberto Tozzi & Raff in 1987 (3rd) and “Fiumi di Parole” by Jalisse in 1997 (4th). Furthermore there were many Top 10 rankings for Italy – 4 times 2ndand 4 times 3rd -, so it’s one of the most successful countries in Eurovision.

Italy has paused for twelve years (1998 – 2010) until the Italian broadcaster RAI has decided to return in 2011, this has been highly appreciated internationally, as Italy is known for high quality songs. Luckily, Italy shaped up very well in Düsseldorf with “Follia D’Amore” by Raphael Gualazzi and came 2nd. One year later with “L’Amore E Femina” by Nina Zilli a 9th rank could be reached. Last year Marco Mengoni could even make a respectable 7th place in Malmö.